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Grandma and Grandpa's 69th Anniversary Cupcakes

My aunt enlisted me to make cupcakes again for my grandparent's anniversary this year and asked for two dozen each of three different kinds cupcakes. This was slightly less than the number I made last year, but I was also short on time to prep and prepare the cupcakes, so I decided to try to do something different with the frosting. Rather than spending time on making fondant flower cutouts and rosettes, I wanted to try some new piping techniques. So I pulled out a couple of tips that I had never used before and did a little experimenting ahead of time.

The first thing I tried was a tip that makes wide flat ribbons. Starting in the center of the practice nail, I spiraled the ribbon around on itself and tried to make a ruffled sort of carnation flower. It was a bit difficult trying to make them evenly, and they took a bit longer than our usual spiraling pile of frosting. But I also found that throwing some extra wriggles and ruffles made them a little more interesting.

We tried a few Russian tips, but either our frosting wasn't the right consistency, or our technique wasn't right, because the frosting broke up rather than making stiff peaks of tulip petals.

Moving on, we then tried our usual tip and swirl, but rather than starting on the outside and piling the frosting up, we started in the center and laid the frosting out horizontally. This created the rosettes that I have admired all over Pinterest but thought were too hard to do. They were actually way more simple and used less frosting.


Between the carnations, the rosettes, and our standard swirl with a star tip, I figured we had enough frosting styles for the cupcakes we were making. The two flower styles would be unadorned and the the swirl would be topped with some edible butterflies that I had ordered online and were on their way.

Flavor-wise, my aunt had asked for amaretto, mocha, and a third flavor of my choosing. So I went with butter cake with amaretto frosting, fudge cupcakes with mocha frosting, and having made some pretty good ube frosting previously, I decided to pair it with coconut cake.

The day we frosted the cupcakes things went a little awry. Some of the carnation flowers had a bit of a hole in the middle where the frosting ribbon started, which wasn't really fixable after the fact. We dropped a large sugar pearl in the center to fill in the space. The amaretto changed the consistency of the frosting for the rosettes, which made them a little chunky and not so smooth in spots. And the edible butterflies were shipped late and didn't arrive in time.

The cupcakes tasted great, but they didn't feel quite as special as they did last year when they were more decorated. I will have to do more practicing, because next year will be their 70th anniversary and I will definitely need to do something really spectacular for those.




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